Military

Further Reading

STATEMENT
OF

MARK WONG
DEPUTY COORDINATOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

MAY 22, 2001

Mr.
Chairman:

Thank
you for the opportunity to testify today
before the Special Oversight Panel on
Terrorism to describe the State Department's
view of the international terrorism threat. Edmund Hull, the Department's Acting
Coordinator for Counterterrorism, regrets that
long standing previous commitments prevent him
from testifying today. As the Deputy Coordinator, I am
appearing on his behalf. Because of your specific interests in
the effort to protect Americans against
terrorism, I am accompanied by Mr. Sam
Brinkley, the senior advisor for our program
to counter terrorist use of a Weapon of Mass
Destruction (WMD).

I
will address in my statement our assessment of
the terrorist threat and trends in terrorism,
using as a starting point the State
Department's annual report to Congress, Patterns
of Global Terrorism, which was released
April 30. I also will describe our
counterterrorism efforts and coordination,
including cooperation with the Department of
Defense, and our efforts to counter weapons of
mass destruction. In protecting the United States against
international terrorist attacks, whether on
U.S. or foreign soil, the first line of
defense starts abroad. I will describe our activities in
international counterterrorism and our
cooperation with domestic counterterrorism
efforts. The State Department is the lead U.S.
Government agency in countering terrorism
overseas. The Coordinator for Counterterrorism
is the focus for the State Department's
development and coordination of
counterterrorism policy in the international
arena.

Threat
Trends

During
the 1970's and 1980's, the primary threat to
U.S. lives and interests came from countries
- Libya, Syria, Iran and Iraq, for example
- that were directly involved in terrorism
or supported terrorist groups. Using substantial state resources,
these countries were able to sponsor terrorism
on a large scale and with devastating impact,
whether by supporting Palestinian leftist
groups in their efforts to terrorize Israel or
by directly attacking American and other
Western targets.

Terrorist
groups became increasingly sophisticated, not
only in their ability to conduct attacks, but
also in their ability to manage complex
financial and logistical networks, to spread
their influence from the Middle East to
Europe, South Asia, and beyond. To counter this threat, the United
States devoted most of its counterterrorism
efforts and resources to countering the state
sponsors. The state sponsor threat was also the
genesis of much of the counterterrorism
legislation, including the "state sponsor"
legislation and related sanctions laws, that
Congress enacted to facilitate the United
States' efforts. The successful conviction of Abdel
Busset al-Megrahi, who participated in the
murder of 259 people on Pan Am flight 103 and
11 more on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland,
on behalf of the Libyan government, is both a
vivid reminder of the dangers of state
sponsorship and a sign of the success we have
in curbing it.

Since
the 1980's, the international community,
with the United States in the lead, has
increasingly worked together at all levels to
isolate and confront state sponsors with
various tools, international sanctions,
multilateral pressure and isolation, and
concerted diplomatic, intelligence, and law
enforcement campaigns. By the late 1980's and early 1990's
we began to see the fruit of that cooperation,
with many state sponsors moving to limit --
but unfortunately not to end-- their support
for terrorism. Nonetheless, even the decreased state
sponsorship we see today represents a critical
threat. For
example, Iran and Syria's continued support
for Hizballah and Palestinian rejectionist
groups has devastated the lives of too many
innocent civilians and hurt the cause of peace
in the Middle East.

The
success we have had in reining in most State
Sponsors has been countered by the more recent
emergence of loosely organized, international
networks of terrorists, often described in the
popular lexicon as "Afghan Alumni,"
because of their involvement with the
long-running conflict in Afghanistan. These terrorist networks share a vision
of global "jihad" against the West,
especially the United States, and Middle
Eastern regimes they perceive to be
"un-Islamic." As most governments, including our
friends and allies in the Middle East, worked
to improve their counterterrorism efforts -
often with the assistance of the United States
- many of the "international mujahidin"
and the terrorist groups they created or
joined sought safe haven in areas where they
could work with relative impunity. Sadly for the people of Afghanistan,
the Taliban believed it was in its interest to
offer many of these terrorists, including
Usama bin Ladin, safehaven in the parts of
Afghanistan it controls.

Although
the locus for these terrorists is Afghanistan,
they have and continue to spread their
destruction across the world, including in
Kenya and Tanzania, where they killed 12
American diplomats and hundreds of Kenyans and
Tanzanians. They have even reached American soil. Afghanistan-based terrorists succeeded
in bombing the World Trade Center. If it were not for the continuing
diligence of the U.S. intelligence and law
enforcement agencies operating here and
abroad, and our allies, these terrorists would
have inflicted even more devastation, carrying
out terrorist attacks against our friends
abroad, and very possibly in the United States
as well. Here I specifically refer to the foiled
plot to attack tourist sites in Jordan, and
the foiled attempt by Ahmed Ressam to bring
explosive devices into the U.S. from Canada in
December 1999.
Clearly, the intent of these terrorist
operatives --many trained in Afghanistan--to
strike at the U.S. remains a clear and present
danger, as we saw so tragically in the October
2000 murder of 17 U.S. sailors aboard the USS
Cole.

Countermeasures

In
preventing and defending against international
terrorist attacks - whether aimed at
Americans overseas or at home - our first
line of defense and offense is overseas. As In
indicated in my introduction, the Department
of State, as the lead agency for countering
terrorism overseas, heads this fight. The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism is the key
office for developing, coordinating, and
implementing the policy effort overseas.

The
U.S. Government uses all tools available -
including international diplomacy, law
enforcement, intelligence collection and
sharing, sanctions, and military force as
appropriate - to counter current terrorist
threats and to hold terrorists accountable for
past actions. Terrorists seek refuge in what former
Coordinator for Counterterrorism Michael
Sheehan has described as "swamps." He meant by this, areas of countries
where government territorial control is weak,
such as Lebanon, or where a government or a
powerful faction is sympathetic, such as in
Afghanistan. We seek to drain these swamps. Through diplomacy, international and
domestic legislation, intelligence sharing and
strengthened law enforcement, the United
States seeks to curb the ability of terrorists
to move, plan, raise funds, and operate. Our goal is to eliminate terrorist safe
havens, dry up the terrorists' sources of
revenue, break up their cells, disrupt their
movements, and bring them to justice for their
crimes.

International
Cooperation

International
cooperation is essential to countering
international terrorism. We work closely with other countries to increase
international political will to limit all
aspects of terrorists' efforts. The introduction to the latest issue of
our annual report,
Patterns of Global Terrorism, presents an
overview of our efforts to bolster
international cooperation. I will not repeat the details, but I do
want to underscore the importance of UN
Security Council Resolution 1333, which levied
additional sanctions on the Taliban for
harboring Usama Bin Ladin and other terrorists
and for failing to close terrorist training
camps.

Our
embassies and missions overseas are critical
in obtaining and sustaining international
cooperation and in providing early warning of
potential threats to our interests. Our diplomats deliver a consistent message on terrorism to
foreign governments, reinforce that message
with practical support to the willing, and
mobilize the international community to
isolate - through political and economic
pressure - those who still support or use
terrorism. In multilateral meetings, as well as in
our bilateral relations, we work to create an
environment intolerant of terrorism, and to
isolate those who threaten us, our friends and
allies, and innocent people everywhere.

As
Secretary Powell has emphasized, it is our
duty to afford the best possible protection to
American citizens wherever they may work or
travel, but we cannot succeed without the
support and cooperation of foreign
governments. These governments bear the primary
responsibility within their borders for
preventing terrorism, protecting our citizens,
responding to terrorist attacks, and
investigating attacks against Americans. It is also through the cooperation of foreign governments
that we have extradited or rendered to
American justice 13 wanted terrorists since
1993.

Our
Chiefs of Mission are responsible for
coordinating the actions of the agencies that
work from within our embassies to prevent and
respond to terrorism. With the exception of those directly
under a regional CINC's authority, our Chiefs
of Mission are responsible for all official
Americans working on behalf of the American
people, whether they are Legal or Defense
Attaches, Intelligence Officers, Foreign
Service or Civil Service officers.

Working
with Defense

The
State Department also leads the Foreign
Emergency Support Team, also known as the
FEST, which is deployed to serve as an
ambassador's consultative and support unit
in response to a terrorist attack or sometimes
in anticipation of a potential attack. In the past year, the FEST has been
deployed to the Philippines, Yemen, and
Ecuador. This interagency team is led by experienced State Department
professionals and staffed by experts from DOD,
FBI, and other agencies. The FEST plays a crucial role in the
vital tasks of coordinating the interagency
response overseas, securing American lives and
assets, and keeping Washington informed on key
developments. The FEST team works intimately with the
U.S. mission and host government to ensure
that all steps are taken to protect U.S.
interests and lives, and, in cases where
American citizens are the victims of a
terrorist attack abroad, to help bring
terrorists to justice.

The
FEST team holds interagency exercises at least
twice a year to ensure that they are ready for
different and changing types of emergency
response needs, ranging from airplane
hijackings to biological or chemical attacks. The composition of the team depends on
the incident but includes specialists such as
FBI hostage negotiators and forensic experts
and WMD consequence management planners as
appropriate.

We
work closely with the Defense Department in
the FEST operations. In addition to its contributions of
experts and specialists to the FEST team, DOD
also provides, maintains and operates the
FEST's aircraft. Last year, Congress
provided DOD funding to replace the
37-year-old aircraft. The Domestic Emergency Support Team (DEST)
may also use this same aircraft to respond to
incidents in the United States. If I may put in a plug for the Defense
Department, DOD is considering a request of
$75 million for a FEST aircraft in its FY 2002
budget.

The U.S. Government's international
response capabilities are well defined, well
coordinated, and well functioning. A carefully developed mechanism for
coordinating our international efforts has
evolved and passed repeated tests over the
years. We
realize that we can always improve and adapt,
and so we are constantly reviewing and
exercising our response capability to ensure
it continues to address changing needs. Our Office of the Coordinator for
Counterterrorism now includes officers
detailed from the FBI and CIA to ensure better
interagency coordination - both day-to-day,
as well as in an emergency situation. We have been, and will continue to work
with our interagency colleagues in the
Departments of Defense, Justice, the Treasury,
Health and Human Services and other agencies
to strengthen our ability to protect Americans
from terrorism overseas and at home. With the Chairman's permission, I
will now turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Sam
Brinkley, the Office's WMD Policy Advisor;
we will be glad to answer the committee's
questions upon the conclusion of his
statement.